Broken
by Dancingqueen4Life
Summary: What happens when Clint breaks Natasha? And how did it happen? Can Clint fix what he broke? Number 5 for my Clintasha one-shot week. Please read and review. Rating is for language.


**Alright, here's number 5. This one has quite a bit more feels than the others, but I think you'll like it.**

* * *

Natasha and Clint were walking toward the training center together, having just been in Fury's office.

"So, what's her name?" Natasha asked.  
"Catherine Stevens." Clint answered after consulting the file in his hands.  
"What's Fury want you to do with her?"  
"Show her around. He paired her with me because apparently she uses a bow."  
"Oh, God, there's another one of you?" Natasha joked.  
Clint shot her a playfully hurt look but paid her comment no more attention.  
"We still on for tonight?" Natasha asked, changing the subject.  
"Like I would miss date night? Barring spontaneous missions, I'm there."  
"It's hardly date night, Clint."  
"I think it is. We're dating, it's night."  
Natasha sighed. "Whatever, hot sauce."  
Clint looped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer to his body, dropping a kiss on her head. They broke apart just before they entered the training center.

As soon as they entered, a woman ran up to Clint.  
"Are you Agent Barton?" she asked, brown eyes wide with what appeared to be longing. Natasha rolled her eyes slightly, not moving from Clint's side.  
"I am. You're Catherine Stevens?"  
"You can call me Cat." She practically purred. Natasha fought back a snort at her tone. People were constantly flirting with her and Clint.  
"Um… ok." Clint said, seeing the lust in Cat's eyes.  
"What can I call you?" She asked.  
"Agent Barton is fine."  
"That doesn't really roll off the tongue. Are you sure there's _nothing_ else I can call you?" Cat ran her hands up his arms so that they rested on his chest as she leaned in. Natasha was filled with rage at her forwardness. Just because people routinely flirted with her and Clint didn't mean she liked it.  
Clint backed away from the overeager agent. He wrapped his arm around Natasha's shoulders and pulled her to him again. "I'm sure." He said evenly.

Cat finally seemed to acknowledge Natasha's presence, and she shot the other woman a dirty look.  
"I'll leave you two to whatever the hell Fury wants you to do. See you later, Clint." Natasha emphasized Clint's name, and kissed his cheek on her way out. As she walked away, she heard Cat's humph of indignation, and didn't try to hide her satisfied smile.  
Hours later, Natasha sat in her and Clint's quarters. He was an hour late for their 'date night', and Natasha tried telling herself that she wasn't annoyed. She heard her phone go off, and she flipped it open, reading the text.

_Fury sent me on surveillance. I'll be back in a few days. Sorry, Tash.  
Love you,  
C._

Natasha sighed as she turned the TV off. She made her way to Clint's bedroom and pulled her pajamas on. SHIELD gave them their own quarters, but for some reason still insisted on giving them separate bedrooms, even though everyone on base knew they were together. Natasha fell asleep quickly, trying not to wonder if Cat was with Clint on his mission.

* * *

The next few days were absolute hell. Cat wasn't with Clint, but she seemed intent on breaking him and Natasha up. After the first day, Natasha decided to spend the rest of Clint's mission hanging out with Maria and complaining about random things.

When Clint finally returned, he immediately made his way to the training center where he knew she'd be. As soon as he walked in, Natasha was in his arms, kissing him. They finally broke apart, laughing at the catcalls from the few SHIELD agents in the room.

"Hey." Natasha said breathlessly.  
"Hey." Clint answered.  
"Barton!" Coulson called as he entered the room. "Fury wants you in his office."  
Clint sighed, but after kissing Natasha again, he made his way to the director. Natasha knew his debrief could take a while, so she went back to their rooms to wait for him. When midnight had come and gone, Natasha decided to go to bed.

She woke the next morning to discover that Clint wasn't in bed with her, nor did it appear that he'd even come in the night before. Natasha showered and dressed quickly before setting out to look for him.

When she finally found him, it was in the hallway outside the mess hall.

"Hey." She said.  
"Hi, sorry about last night."  
"You didn't come to bed. Where were you?"  
"Cat wanted to shoot."  
"Oh."  
"I'm sorry, Tasha." Clint said as he pulled her into his arms.  
"Clint! You still need to finish showing me around."  
Natasha flinched slightly at the annoying voice. It was so slight that most people wouldn't have noticed, but Clint wasn't most people. He rubbed her back and quickly kissed Natasha before leading Cat down the hall. Natasha tried to ignore the feeling in her stomach as she watched Cat lean in close to Clint.

* * *

The next week passed in much the same manner. Natasha and Clint would try to make plans, but Cat always came up with something that pulled him away. The final straw came a week and a half after Cat showed up on base.

Natasha hadn't been in the best mood lately. She was getting annoyed with hardly seeing her boyfriend, and she definitely wasn't pleased with Cat's behavior. She walked into their quarters intent on taking a nap, but when she entered her bedroom to look for a particular shirt, she stopped in her tracks. The water was on in the attached bathroom, and her clothes were laid out on her bed. Not a moment later, the water turned off, and a few moments after that, Cat came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her midsection.

"What the fuck are you doing in here?!" Natasha screeched.  
"Oh! Sorry. Clint said this was just an extra room and I could use it whenever I wanted." She responded.  
"Oh really? Well, I'm telling you that this is my room, and you need to get your ass out before I shoot you."  
"Don't get your panties in a knot, sweetie." Cat replied.  
Natasha snapped. Before Cat could blink, a knife was sailing past her head, missing her ear by a millimeter. "Get. Out." Natasha hissed, another knife in her hand.  
"Ok, I'm going." Cat said. She made her way to the bed and began picking up Natasha's clothes.  
"No. You're not wearing my clothes. You get to walk around base in just the towel. After all, you broke into someone else's room to shower when you could have gone to your own room."

Cat rolled her eyes as she pushed past Natasha, and Natasha had to work to control her anger so that she didn't shoot the woman in the head. When Cat was gone, Natasha grabbed some other clothes and made her way to Clint's bedroom to use his shower, not wanting to use her own until it was thoroughly cleaned out. But when Natasha stepped into Clint's room, she stopped in her tracks yet again. Someone's underwear and clothes were strewn around the room, and they weren't hers or Clint's. She knew without a second thought that the clothes belonged to Cat. What she didn't know was why the other woman's clothes were in her boyfriend's room.

_Don't be stupid, Natasha. You know exactly why._

Before she was aware of what she was doing, Natasha had Cat's clothes burning in the sink. When they were sufficiently charred, Natasha grabbed her duffle bag and shoved a few changes of clothes inside. She ran out of her room and nearly ran into Clint as she tried to leave the quarters he was entering.

"Whoa there, Tasha." He said. When he noticed the look in her eyes, his expression changed. "Tasha? What's wrong?"  
"Like you don't know? Don't treat me like an idiot, Clint, please."  
"Tasha?"  
"Are you happy? You finally broke the Black Widow. You broke me right in half. Are you proud of yourself?"  
Before Clint could answer, Natasha pushed past him and left him standing in the doorway of their quarters. She hurried down the hall until she was standing in front of a similar looking door. She took a deep breath before raising her hand and knocking. The door opened moments later.

"Tasha?"  
"Maria. Can I stay with you for a few days?"  
Maria could tell that Natasha was about to start crying, so she opened the door wider and gestured for Natasha to enter. Natasha dropped her bag by the door and made her way to the couch. As soon as she heard the door close, Natasha let the tears flow from her eyes.

"Tasha? What happened?"  
"He-he's…"  
"Clint?"  
"Yeah."  
"What did he do?"  
"He slept with her."  
"Who?"  
"Cat." Natasha hissed her name.  
"That new agent?"  
"Yeah. He slept with her, and pretended that he didn't know what I was talking about."  
"Oh, Tasha."  
"Why did he do it, Maria?" Natasha was sobbing now, and it broke Maria's heart to see her friend so broken up.  
"I don't know, Tasha. Do you know for sure that he did?"  
"Her clothes were all over his floor. And when I walked into my room, she was just coming out of my shower, and was going to put on my clothes. What else could it be?"

Maria really didn't want to believe that Clint would cheat on Natasha, but there didn't seem to be another explanation.  
"What are you going to do, Tasha?"  
"I might go back." She whispered.  
"To the Red Room? Why? I thought they'd kill you if you ever went back."  
"They will."  
"Tasha?"  
"I could ask them to take the memories away."  
"What?"  
"Feeling nothing has to be better than feeling this."  
"Feeling what?"  
"Like he ripped my heart out. I'm not built to handle human emotions. I can't deal with all of this." Tears were rolling from Natasha's eyes, and her sobs were making it increasingly difficult to understand her words. Maria made her way to Natasha's side and pulled the assassin into her arms. When Natasha had calmed down slightly, Maria stood up.

"Maria?"  
"Shh. I'll be right back."  
Maria watched as Natasha nodded and curled herself into a little ball on the couch. Maria stepped out of her quarters, and after making sure that the door was closed, she took off running toward the mess hall. She spotted Clint as soon as she entered the room.

"Clint Barton!" She screamed.  
"Hill?"  
"Shut up. You're a complete ass!"  
"What?"  
"I said shut up! Your girlfriend is currently having a breakdown in my living room! So get your head out of your ass and go do whatever the hell you have to do to fix it."  
Maria turned on her heel and stormed away. Clint stood in the mess hall for a few seconds, ignoring the silence that engulfed the room. Then he took off running.  
"Maria!" He called down the hall.  
"What?" She snapped.  
"What's wrong with Nat?"  
"I don't know, it might have something to do with the fact that you cheated on her."  
"What?! I didn't!"  
"Then why did she find someone else's clothes in your bedroom?"  
"What?"  
"Natasha found Cat in her bathroom, and Cat's clothes in your bedroom. So she burned the clothes and came to my quarters. So fix it."

Clint watched as Maria stormed away. Suddenly everything made sense, Natasha's words, the ashes in his sink, everything.  
He ran toward the gym, where he found Cat talking with some other new agents.

"Hey, Clint!" She called, skipping up to him.  
"Shut up. Catherine Stevens, you're done with SHIELD. You're no longer qualified to be an agent. You will pack your things and be gone within the hour. If you're not, well, you don't want to know. If I ever see you again, I will kill you. Do you understand?"  
"Did your stupid partner put you up to this?"  
Clint had a knife to her throat in a second. "You say one more thing about my partner, and I'll slit your throat before I shoot an arrow through your eye sockets." He hissed. "I want you gone. You royally fucked up my life and my relationship, not to mention my future safety in the field." Clint turned and walked away. When he got to the door, he stopped and turned to face Cat.

"And next time you decide to try and break up a relationship and a partnership, make sure you can actually use the god dammed weapon you claim you can use. You're worse than a two year old at archery. One hour."  
Then Clint was out the door and hurrying toward Maria's quarters. He passed her in the halls, and told her what he'd told Cat about leaving. Maria nodded in agreement and went to make sure that she followed his instructions.

When he got to Maria's quarters, the door was unlocked. He took a deep breath and opened the door.

* * *

Natasha heard the door open, and footsteps entering the room.  
"You know what the worst part is, Maria? He ripped my heart out, and I still fucking love him. How sick is that?"  
"I still love you too, Tasha." Clint whispered.

Natasha rolled over to face the door, her heart rate quickening.

"What do you want?"  
"To explain. But first, I just want you to say anything and everything that you want to say to me. And I won't defend myself until you're done."  
Natasha took a deep breath and nodded, before she began. "You're an ass. You fucking slept with her. I wouldn't have cared if you'd told me that you wanted to take a break or whatever. But instead you just fucked her. I told Maria that I wanted to go to the Red Room and have them take the memories of you out of my head, even if they'd kill me after. Anything would be better than this. I'd rather feel nothing than feel like this. Like you ripped my heart out. I want so much to be mad at you, but I can't. Because despite everything, I still fucking love you. I love you so much it hurts. You made me trust you, and then you made me love you. I can't deal with this many emotions, but you make me feel them all the time. I'm still barely human, and all of this is killing me. I want to hate you, but I just keep loving you. You broke me, Clint. You fucking broke me."  
There was silence when she was done, but Clint couldn't stop hearing the raw emotion that her voice had held.

"I'm sorry, Tasha. I'm so incredibly, fucking, sorry. I didn't sleep with her, I never would have. She did all of that on purpose because she knew there was nothing I'd be able to do. But I told her to get out, and that I'd kill her if I ever saw her again, and I will. I don't expect you to trust me anymore, honestly I don't. But I swear to you that I'd never hurt you like that. I told you all those years ago that I'd keep you safe, and I think I did an ok job. And then when we started dating, I told you that I'd never break you like those other men did. And it's killing me that I broke that promise to you. All I can say is that you're all I've ever wanted, and that's never going to change. I don't care if there are a million other girls, you're the only one I want."  
"But why?" Natasha cut in. "Why do you want me? I've been broken into a million pieces too many times to count. I've had so many things shoved into my head that I still don't know what's what half the time. Why do you want me, when you can have her? When you can have someone who's not broken?"  
"Because, I've been broken too. I know what it's like to be hurt by the people you thought were there to protect you. I'll never say that my childhood was as bad as yours was, but it was similar. I was used over and over again, made to feel worthless when I failed. I fucking killed my own brother! I was torn apart and pieced back together, but every time, something else was taken of myself, and replaced with someone else. I don't want someone who's never been broken. They don't understand us. I want you, only you. Before we were together, we started slowly learning how to fix each other. That's what I want. We'll always be broken, but with time, we can be a little less broken. That's why I need you Tasha. You keep me sane. You make me know who I am when I don't know anymore."  
Natasha stared at Clint for a moment. Suddenly she was across the room with her arms wrapped tightly around his waist. Clint stiffened slightly, but then he relaxed and pulled her even closer to him. He hugged her tightly and burrowed his face in her hair.

"I fucking love you, Tasha. I'm so sorry this shit happened."  
"I love you too. I didn't want to believe you did it, but how could I ignore the evidence?"  
"You don't have to explain yourself, Tasha. I fucked up because I let Cat get between us. I put her ahead of you, and that's unacceptable. And you know what the worst part was?"  
"What?"  
"She can't even shoot a fucking bow!"  
Natasha laughed at that, one of her real laughs. "I love you, Clint."  
"I love you too, Nat."  
"Now that you two made up, can I get my room back?"  
Natasha and Clint turned around to find Maria standing in the doorway, smiling at them.

"Sorry, Maria."  
"Don't worry about it, Tasha. Clint, if you ever do that again, I'll end you. Understood?"  
"Yes, Maria."  
"Good. Now get out. Fury gave you both a week off, so get off base and do whatever it is couples do."  
Clint smiled as he grabbed Natasha's bag and led her into the hall. They walked back to their quarters with their arms around each other's waists, and Natasha's head on Clint's shoulder. When they entered their rooms, they went into Natasha's room, and Clint helped her clean her bathroom with bleach. When she felt it was clean enough, they showered together. They ended up not actually getting clean, preferring to just hold each other under the warm spray. When they were done, they climbed into Natasha's bed and fell asleep as Clint wrapped his body around Natasha's.

* * *

**I hope you guys liked it. I know Natasha seems a little out of character, but underneath all her programming, she's still a person, or at least she was. And she does say that she wasn't built to handle that many human emotions. Besides, this is all in my head, which means I could have them do anything I wanted. So yeah. But seriously, I hope you guys liked it.**

**Reviews are wonderful. You should write one. :)**


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